The Precious Blood

[0:00] Precious things.

[0:12] And he tells of this precious book that we can hold in our hands.! It's truly precious. Precious. Jammed Act is a precious book.

[0:25] ! It's a book that bleeds blood. A blood-stained book. We see blood shed in the garden.

[0:37] We see blood shed at the cross. It's right through the book, isn't it? A blood-stained book that shows us how the stain of our sin can be cleansed.

[0:48] It's been said that the blood of Christ keeps Christianity alive. Someone has said, cut the Bible anywhere and it bleeds blood. The blood is there.

[0:59] The blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus. The blood is spoken of 427 times in our Bible. So it's easy to see. It's not a minor thing. It's a very major thing.

[1:11] And without the blood, the gospel is dead. We're deprived of eternal life. I want to talk a bit about the blood this morning as we come around the Lord's table, as we do customarily as often as we can.

[1:23] And it's how we see the blood. We see some precious things. First thing we see that Peter writes of one who is precious.

[1:36] One who is precious. It's how he is. It's who he is. It's what he is. Peter writes, he says, to you which believe, he is precious.

[1:51] Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is become, made the hair of the corner.

[2:03] The one who is bleeding and dying is the one that Peter speaks of. The lamb that was slain, killed. Back at Pentecost, as he preached of this one, of this same one in Acts 2, verse 23 through 24.

[2:19] Peter preaches this, he says, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken. He was talking to the Jews. Ye have taken him and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, killed.

[2:37] Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Peter tells of precious things.

[2:51] To you which believe, hanging is precious. This book filled with exceeding great and precious promises.

[3:05] A precious saviour. And Peter writes furthermore of something else that is precious. The precious blood of Christ.

[3:17] 1 Peter 1 1 Peter 1 Peter saw that blood.

[4:21] Peter saw his beloved saviour, the one to whom you believe he is precious. He saw that precious saviour and he saw the precious blood as it fell from this bleeding lamb.

[4:35] The lamb of God. Slain. Killed. He saw the precious blood. Precious. Precious. Precious. Precious. Beyond price.

[4:46] It's precious. Why? The precious blood of Christ is precious because it gives life. You that are alive today, you are alive because of blood.

[4:58] Just physically speaking. Without your blood, you would be dead. Dead. The blood is essential. In Leviticus 17, in the context of the sacrifices showing the Christ to come, the writer of Leviticus 17, 11, he says, for the life of the flesh is in the blood.

[5:18] The life of the flesh is in the blood. Now, years ago they used to vent blood of people thinking that would help them, but it actually did not.

[5:29] Because they didn't understand. The Bible says the life of the flesh is in the blood. It's precious because it gives life. It's precious because it fits us for heaven. Now, I heard someone put it this way.

[5:42] I'm not qualified to do brain surgery. You wouldn't want to try me out. Believe me. I'm not qualified to drill teeth or to fly an aeroplane or to fix a car.

[5:53] I'm not qualified to play for the Crows or to play for Manchester United. I'm not qualified to do a lot of things. But I am qualified to go to heaven.

[6:04] And you can be too. Qualified to go to heaven. Made fit. Made fit such as there's a reservation made for you. There. Not down at the travel agent, but at the foot of the cross.

[6:17] As a reservation can be made. And it's an inheritance reserved for you. Incorruptible. Cannot be damaged. It's in a safe keeping.

[6:28] A safe deposit box. It's in God's deposit. And you can be qualified to go to heaven because of the blood of Jesus Christ. That's what makes all the difference.

[6:39] You too can know the saving power of this precious blood. And in heaven we'll be singing. A song such as this in Revelation 5.12 it says of them. They were saying with a loud voice.

[6:51] Worthy is the lamb that was slain. To receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing.

[7:04] Worthy is the lamb. They're going to sing it with a loud voice. Because the precious blood makes us fit for heaven. The precious blood is precious because of its cleansing power.

[7:19] 1 John 1 verse 7 it says, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from most of our sin. No it doesn't say that.

[7:30] It says from all our sin. Isn't that a relief? Phew. All of my sin is cleansed because of the blood of Jesus Christ. And it's got full cleansing power.

[7:42] That's precious isn't it? That's precious isn't it? That's precious blood isn't it? The precious blood. The precious blood. It cleanses us from sin for how long? Forever.

[7:53] Forever and ever and ever. He promised not to remember our sins again. His cleansing is forever. In Hebrews 10.17 it says, And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

[8:06] Wow. I thought I had a memory problem. You know sometimes I forget things. I'm glad that God forgets some things. He says, Your sins I will remember no more.

[8:19] No more. No more. Isn't that good news? That's precious blood that makes that happen. And the blood is precious because the precious blood gives us open access.

[8:30] The doors swing wide open because of the precious blood. As the Lord cried out on the cross, It is finished. It is finished. At that same moment the veil was torn from top to bottom.

[8:45] The veil of the temple, this veil, this curtain, this heavy curtain was torn, wide open from top to bottom. It was torn from top to bottom. It was torn from top to bottom. It was torn from top to bottom. And can you imagine what a sight, what a sound that would have been.

[9:00] That great heavy curtain. RIP! Torn wide open from top to bottom. Can't you hear it just RIP! Wide open.

[9:11] That's what God did at the cross. When the Lord Jesus cried out, It is finished. Everything was finished to that old covenant day. All the sacrifices of animals, as it were, That had been completed and done.

[9:26] And now fulfilled in Christ's cross as the precious blood was given for you. And so we can have boldness. It says in Hebrews 10 verses 19, Boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

[9:42] This was the holiest of holies. The holy of holies. Where only the high priest could go in. You can go in now. You can go in now. You can go in now. You don't have to wear a priestly robes or have some priestly lineage or have some credentials that the Hebrews would claim.

[10:00] But you can come in as Gentiles as you that know he is precious to you. You can enter into the holiest. Why? By the blood of Jesus.

[10:12] By a new and living way. Which he has consecrated for us through the veil. That is to say, his flesh. As his flesh was torn, the veil was torn. And the open access is made by the precious blood.

[10:26] And now having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart. In full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled, washed. Our hearts washed by the blood, as it were.

[10:38] Sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. There's a purity. There's a cleansing. There's a pardon. There's an open access today because of the precious blood.

[10:49] And the blood is precious because it affects our pardon. In John 18, 38, as Pilate stood and squared him in the eyes. And he then talked to the people as he had examined him.

[11:01] And he says, I find no fault with him. I find no fault with him. And yet they still go, Crucify him! Crucify him! As they cursed and spat, as it were, with their venomous voices.

[11:21] As their hateful cries condemned him. He offers pardon even to such. And he says, Father, forgive them.

[11:32] For they know not what they do. The perfect one, the faultless one, died in our place. Carrying our guilt. Carrying your cross.

[11:44] Bearing your guilt. Shouldering your shame. And he shed his precious, precious blood. His blood was shed for you. And now, as Paul tells in 2 Corinthians 5, Now then, we as ambassadors for Christ, we beseech you.

[12:03] As though God did this beseech you by us, we pray. We pray you in Christ's stare. In other words, I'm praying, I'm pleading with you in the place of Christ.

[12:16] I'm standing, speaking to you as if it were the voice of Christ speaking to you today. Be ye reconciled to God. Reconciliation with God.

[12:30] Wow! Isn't that amazing? Staggering, isn't it? That's precious blood that can make that happen. And you, you, you can be reconciled with God. You that are enemies, you that are separated from God, can be reconciled.

[12:45] And embrace him. And he can embrace you. And receive you. And be reconciled to you. How? Because he hath made him to be sin for us.

[12:57] Him who knew no sin, to be made sin for us, that ye, we, might be made the righteousness of God in him. So he took our place.

[13:10] He took our sin. And in exchange, he offers us freely his free gift of his righteousness, of his saving and salvation.

[13:22] I'm going to call the ushers just now. As we reflect further on this theme, I've got Casey, Michael, Edmund, Rukukuya. If you come forward now.

[13:33] We're going to pass the bread and cup. And our customers to hold it together. And then to pass and pray and take together. If you're a believer today, if you can say unto me that believe.

[13:50] He is precious. If Jesus is precious to you this morning, this is an open invitation to you. If Jesus is precious to you. If you believe him.

[14:01] And to you that believe he is precious. If you believe this book, exceeding great and precious promises. One of those promises is, come unto me. Come unto me.

[14:12] He says, look unto me. And be ye saved. All the ends of the earth. He says to you. He says to me. He says to the world. To the nations. To all the world.

[14:23] Look unto me. And be ye saved. And if you can look unto him, you can be saved. So I'll pass the bread and cup. We'll hold together. And wait for one another.

[14:34] And think of that precious blood. The precious blood of Christ. Shed for you. If you will but trust him.

[14:46] This symbol of cup and bread is just that. But it is a reminder today.

[14:57] His blood is precious. Because it sets us free. For the children of Israel, they were in this place of bondage. In this state of bondage.

[15:09] And then judgment fell on the nation of Egypt. Back at the time of the Passover. And for the children of Israel to be free from Egypt's bondage, the blood had to be applied.

[15:23] The blood had to be applied to the doors and lintels, the top part of their door frames of their homes. And so a lamb had to be killed.

[15:34] They had to take a lamb, a precious little lamb, and they had to kill that lamb. And the blood had to be shed. It would have been messy. It would have been ugly. It would have been sad to kill a lamb.

[15:48] And then to splash it over the door of your home. But it had a picture of that people being safe because of the blood.

[16:00] And you can be safe because of the blood today. If the blood has been applied to your heart, to your life. Many years ago there was a preacher who was walking along and saw a little boy carrying a cage.

[16:13] And had some nervous birds in this cage. And the preacher said, son, where are you taking those birds? Where did you get them? And the boy said, I'll trap them out in the woods and put them in this old rusty cage.

[16:26] And I'm going to play with them. And then when I'm finished, I'll probably just feed them to my old cat. And the preacher said, look, I'll pay you something for them. Mister, you don't want them.

[16:38] They're just old wild birds. They can't seem very well. I'll give you two dollars for the cage and the birds, he said. Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain.

[16:50] So the exchange was made. And the boy walked away whistling. And the pastor went to the back of the church and he opened that old rusty cage. And he set those struggling birds free.

[17:03] And they flew out into the blue sky. And then the next Sunday he talked about what had happened. And he picked up his empty cage. And he used it to illustrate how Jesus sets us free.

[17:15] As a bird set free from a cage. He said, that boy told me those birds were not singers. But when I released them from that cage, they winged their way to heaven.

[17:26] And it seemed to me they were singing. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed. Set free. Can you sing redeemed this morning? Can you sing I'm redeemed.

[17:38] I'm set free. I've been released. My sins have been forgiven. Because of the precious blood today. Is the precious blood applied to your heart? Friends, this book is precious.

[17:50] This book is precious. It shows us the way. The truth and the life. It shows us the one to whom if you believe, he is precious. And it tells the blood from cover to cover.

[18:03] The blood of Calvary. The blood of the lamb slain. Before the foundation of the world. The lamb killed. The lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.

[18:14] Can you sing redeemed today? Do you know him? I pray to you that believe. As the word says, you'll know he's precious today. He's precious today.

[18:26] He's precious in my past and he's precious in my future. He'll be precious in heaven. And I'll be singing worthy. Worthy is the lamb that was slain. He's precious.

[18:37] The blood is precious. It brings life. It fits us for heaven. It brings cleansing power. The blood sets us free. It puts a song in our heart.

[18:48] It opens access to his presence. And we can have boldness today because of the blood. To ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending ending